Commanders To Add Brian Johnson To Staff

Fired from the Eagles last month, Brian Johnson will not land another offensive coordinator job. But the Eagles will see their three-year assistant twice next season.

Dan Quinn is expected to add the former play-caller to his Commanders staff, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler reports. Johnson will work under Kliff Kingsbury in a prominent position. Prior to spending the 2023 season as the Eagles’ OC, Johnson was in place as quarterbacks coach.

It appears the Commanders will install Johnson as their pass-game coordinator, Fowler tweets. Johnson played an integral role in Jalen Hurts‘ ascent during the early 2020s, and although the Eagles fell apart on both sides of the ball late in the season, Hurts’ development on the whole reflects well on the young assistant.

Johnson, 36, interviewed for multiple HC jobs this offseason — in Atlanta and Tennessee — and received a request from Carolina. Though, the Panthers made a point of indicating they were no longer interested days later. Johnson landed on the OC carousel soon after, interviewing for the Browns, Buccaneers and Saints’ positions. Each team went in another direction. With only one OC job open — Seattle’s — Johnson will take a step back in 2024. Though, Quinn having a prominent OC candidate in place on his staff could certainly help during his first season in Washington.

This Commanders commitment also comes after Johnson engaged in talks with other teams, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini tweets. It was believed several teams were monitoring Johnson’s status. While Eric Bieniemy was unable to use the Commanders as a platform to solidify his value, Kingsbury and Johnson could have longer leashes due to the circumstances. Josh Harris and Adam Peters should be considered likely to give Quinn at least two seasons to prove he has what it takes to lead this team back to relevancy, though the team’s fortunes may well come down to how the No. 2 overall pick fares. Johnson figures to be an essential component in that equation.

Shifting from Shane Steichen to Johnson last year, the Eagles started off well but became one of the most disappointing contenders in recent memory by fading down the stretch. Philly managed just nine points in a one-sided wild-card loss in Tampa, and it appears Nick Sirianni was asked to fire both Johnson and DC Sean Desai. Unlike Doug Pederson in 2021, Philly’s HC obliged and will keep his job.

The Eagles’ bigger problems came on defense, but Hurts’ 15 INTs matched his 2021 and ’22 seasons combined. His yards-per-attempt number also dropped from 8.0 to 7.2 from 2022 to ’23. Though, the Eagles still ranked in the top eight in scoring and total offense. As the Eagles’ tailspin eventually involved the offense as well, Johnson found himself out of a job after receiving HC interview requests. The Eagles interviewed Kingsbury hours after firing Johnson; the two will now work together in Washington.

Johnson, who came to the Eagles after spending 2020 as Florida’s offensive coordinator, will likely join Kingsbury in developing a rookie quarterback. The Commanders’ Sam Howell experiment took on water this season, and the eight-game win streak to close out the campaign gave the team the No. 2 overall pick. That is expected to be used on a quarterback. It should then be expected that Kingsbury and Johnson’s fortunes will be tied to Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels — with the Bears still viewed as likely to draft ex-Kingsbury charge Caleb Williams at No. 1 — in Washington.